The game industry has undergone significant growth and development in recent years. The market for video games was initially tied to company-specific hardware devices, and only later were generic platforms introduced for which developers could independently create games. The game industry is currently expanding into the fields of online gaming and mobile games, in part due to the popularization of smartphones and other handheld digital devices.
Game publishers rely on different monetization approaches. In some games, advertising and sale of virtual goods or services are used. For example, in some so-called “freemium” games the user can play the game for free, with the option of paying money for extra game content that is otherwise not available. In such situations, one business goal is to maximize the revenue from such sources. Strategies for doing so can include: seeking to keep a player engaged in the game, attempting to make games viral, encouraging players to buy virtual goods or services, seeking to increase the amount of money each player spends, seeking to minimize the attrition (or churn) of players, and seeking to leverage social graphs of trendsetters.